


When You Share a Name with an Asshole

by awbucks



Category: Fallout - Fandom, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: AU, Backstory, Brotherhood of Steel - Freeform, Fallout New Vegas - Freeform, Followers of the Apocalypse, Kinda, M/M, New Vegas, before fallout new vegas, younger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-02 23:17:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8687404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awbucks/pseuds/awbucks
Summary: Ben is a courier in New Vegas, newly minted and a kid attempting to be good in a world where that doesn't exist in the terms his ma used to read in her pre-war mags.  He'd rather skip the gunfire, charm his way to caps and a bed, but...how feasible is that in the wastelands of the old United States?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Yes...yes...my courier's name is Ben. I know I know....gah. But, hey, *irony* This is set before the events of F:NV. Or an AU. Whatever floats your chicken. Read, Review, Like, Comment, whateva. Thanks for reading my geekery.

Dirt. That’s how life could be explained out here in one word, Ben reasoned. It all seemed to have grit and grime in some way. Relationships-rocky, beds nothing more than a inch of cloth from the soot. But, it wasn’t just him that was out here, there were hundreds of other people who had sweat on their brows. Kids who never got a full meal, doctors who could only dream of sterile supplies, there were more people than just the young courier. 

 

So that was why he was frugal with Stimpaks and didn’t down an extra can of beans at dinner. Ben wanted to be a good person, he was a good person. It was something he figured he should be able to do well enough. No one hated him enough to kill him and no one liked him enough that others didn’t. Ben made friends because he liked the company, not because he liked the connections. His ma had raised him to be friendly, not to be a schmooze. 

 

“Hiya,” He said quietly, smiling at Veronica. She had a whole bunch’a siblings who loved Sugar Bombs. Ben rifled through his satchel and pulled out the couple boxes he’d picked up when he’d made a delivery to the Crimson Caravan. He snuck an intact book underneath, last time they’d talked she’d mentioned she’d liked books during dust storms. 

 

“Here’ya go, Ronny.” He bit his lip when she exclaimed at the book. She immediately thumbed through it, stopping on random pages, drinking in the words. 

 

“Ben!” She hit his arm lightly before transferring it all into her bag, pulling him into a tight hug, as much as he had wanted to, Ben never grew much taller than Veronica, leaving them at about equal height. 

 

“Thank you.” She released him and half-smiled. If Ben had a best friend out here, it’d be Veronica Santangelo. An apprentice scribe for the Brotherhood, she was really the only one he interacted with. They didn’t talk politics, only making sure the other was fed and not bleeding out. 

 

“Y’welcome.” He said, stepping back and looking towards the cracked concrete highway. The sun was still high in the sky, but the road was longer than it looked to get to Freeside. Pushing up his smudged glasses, Ben crossed his arms and looked her in the eye. Her Brotherhood peers all were betting on them getting hitched, claiming they were in love. They were in love, like a brother loved a sister. Which also meant that the thought of them exchanging vows made them gag. Veronica had told Ben about this girl she thought was beautiful and Ben in turn had admitted he kissed a boy from a trading caravan on night. 

 

Once the material business was covered, they were free to talk for a bit ‘till Veronica was called back with a glare and Ben had to continue with more official deliveries. 

 

“I heard that the NCR wants to take HELIOS for themselves,” Veronica muttered. “Selfish SOBs, if you ask me.” 

 

Ben nodded and toed the ground, dragging the tip of his boot through the soil. The NCR seemed more like a police state than a troop, but he didn’t want to delve too far into their system. He’d rather not get shot or roped into some undercover shit. 

 

“It should be sent somewhere that doesn’t have electricity already. Freeside, if you ask me.” He was partial to the Followers and it wasn’t just because there was a particuarly cute doctor who spent most of his researching. It was also because they wanted to help more than gain. He liked that. It was the only group, it seemed, who shared that moral with him. 

 

“Or just out throughout the area, rather than secluding it to a little town.” He hmphed at that but didn’t argue. Sensing their time was running short, he stepped away and jutting his chin towards the highway. 

 

“I gotta be going, Ronny. If I don’t get to Freeside there’s gonna be some pissed chem suppliers.” Veronica, a bit pensive, though she never told Ben, whenever he left with nothing more than a pistol and his wits, she grew anxious. 

 

“Can’t have that, can we?” He chuckled politely and gave Veronica a mock salute. 

 

“Till we meet again.” Then the courier stepped back onto the road, sand caking his boots and mixing with his sweat. See? He wasn’t wrong. Dirt was everywhere, in everything.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry this was so short, just wanted to start it, y'know? Hope y'all liked it! I'll update soon....thanks


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